Toastmasters Officer Conference

January 27, 2009 at 10:57 pm | Posted in projects, social | Leave a comment
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Taken by gadget_virtuouso

Taken by gadget_virtuouso

I went to my first networking event Saturday. Some of you may remember that I became an officer for my campus Toastmasters club last week. There was an Officers Training Conference this weekend and I had a blast meeting so many people there. I wish I brought a camera to show you how crowded the facility was.

It was a great experience. As the conference progressed, I realized that everyone here, whether they’d been involved with Toastmasters for ten months or ten years, started where I am now. On Friday, I have my first icebreaker speech. My nerves are rattled but I feel good about it. I know I’ll feel better afterwards having done it and I’ll feel better knowing specifically what I will need to work on. Knowing that I am facing these fears with a network of supportive, empathetic people fills me up with courage.

It also fills me up with a fresh urge to spread awareness of Toastmasters across the campus. I am so surprsied when people haven’t heard of the group, much less the fact that there is a KSU chapter. Last week, I posted sketches of the flyers and banners I designed. Here’s a copy of the banner so far:

Legacy Owls Toastmasters

I just need to receive the blurb about Legacy Owls and then a picture of an owl. 🙂

I am going to record my icebreaker speech but I’m not sure at this moment whether or not I want to post it. 😉 Let’s see how it goes!

Toastmasters Flyer & Banner Sketches

January 23, 2009 at 8:57 pm | Posted in process, projects, social | 2 Comments
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What an eventful week! Not only have I been officially inducted as a new member at the Cobb County Branch for Toastmasters, I am also now the Secretary for the Legacy Owls Toastmasters! Tomorrow, I will be attending a very last-minute officer training program from 8:00 am to 1:00pm. I will learn to organize notes about meetings and be in charge of marketing the club on campus; I’m always surprised to see that so many students at Kennesaw are unaware of this amazing opportunity to hone their speaking skills. I’ve already whipped up a couple of flyer designs for Legacy Owls:

toastmasters

I will also be designing a humongous banner that will hang off the rails for everyone in the cafeteria to see:

toastmasters

I’ve been connecting with so many people this week; I started with a chunk of business cards in my purse and now I’m down to two. I started this week so dismayed and now I’m radiant with optimism. I love all the opportunities that have been opening up to me.

Well, look like I’ll be turning in early tonight; that officer training seminar starts at 7:15! ( Eek! )

New Green Syence Banner

January 20, 2009 at 9:00 pm | Posted in process, projects | Leave a comment
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First off, I wanted to shout out, Happy Obama Day! 😉 I went to Obamicon.Me earlier and even though I think it sort of cheapens the original Obama poster, I couldn’t help myself:

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Hehe. 🙂

Anyways, I have been staying afloat in school so far; it’s much easier when you carry flashcards with you everywhere. I’ve also been tweaking certain projects I’ve mentioned, like the Thrive America logo and the Green Syence blog banner.

The first banner I did was rejected. :{ It didn’t quite reflect Dr. Chiu’s research so I started form scratch. This time, I’m trying to combine photos AND drawings, playing with the concept of scattered scientific notes. This is what I have so far:

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Not at all done yet but hopefully, this is more in line with what the client wants! 🙂

As for personal projects, I wrote outlines for two chapters of a possible comic I may embark on in the future. I’m keeping this relatively in the dark for now but it’s something I wanted to do for quite a while …

Atlanta Gaza Strip Protest photos

January 16, 2009 at 8:14 pm | Posted in social | Leave a comment
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I set up a Flickr account a couple days ago to upload pictures from the Gaza Strip protest in Atlanta last Saturday. Check them out.

Today is the 44-month anniversary between my fiance and me. Exciting! I will be taking him to a piano recital tonight at the theatre on my campus at Kennesaw. ♥

3 Coloring Tutorials

January 6, 2009 at 2:29 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

For my aspiring artistic audience, I want to share a few coloring tutorials I’ve collected on DeviantArt. I’m a tutorial addict. I don’t get to use many of the tutorials I find but I felt it’d be a sin for me to keep these away from the public.


+CRAYOLA WATERCOLORS TUTORIAL+ by =beautiful-shinigami on deviantART
It’s not always about the tools you use (although sometimes, it is) but how you use them and beautiful-shinigami proves it. This may be a good tutorial for people who want to try out watercolor but don’t want to dish out the money on the tools just yet. If you want to shoot for that classic watercolor anime style, look here.

Marker Tutorial Thinger… by ~Atomic-Clover on deviantART

My weapon of choice has grown to be the Prismamarker, unwieldy to inexperienced hands but a powerful medium when harnessed. true, Atomic-Clover uses a couple of Copic markers here too but with careful color selection, I think you can harvest the same effect. The colors I usually use for white skin is eggshell for the base and then light peach to build value.


How I Color With Photoshop
by Twisted666 (Now MushroomTale )

Twisted666’s tutorial was one of the first Photoshop coloring tutorials I’d come across and I reference it even now. Coloring via Photoshop, I feel, is still far from my strong point but this tutorial never fails to help me out. 🙂

Interestingly, I use Photoshop tutorials to help me with my coloring in general. I’ll adopt some of the same points and techniques with markers. Looking at tutorials, then, can help develop your skills in less obvious ways if you try to keep an open mind and apply it elsewhere.

Hope these tips help!

Blank Stage Productions and Green Syence

January 5, 2009 at 6:23 pm | Posted in process, projects | 2 Comments
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All the holidays are done and over with and now we must all return to work.

So what have I been working on?

I’ve just finished a flyer for Blank Stage Productions:

advertisement

School starts on Thursday for me so this week, I’ll be rushing to finish other parts of the site, including a page listing my services and a page for my clients with helpful links.

I am particularly excited about school coming up; I’ll be finally working towards my new major! The only thing is that I have the dreaded …

Macroeconomics.

I’m feeling pretty optimistic about this semester, though. With my schedule, I’ll have plenty of time to study, work on my graphic work, and maintain a social life.

I want you guys to check out a banner I’ve been doing for Green Syence in collaboration with Rob Chen:

green syence

green syence

green syence

green syence

I’m not done with it yet but here’s the mock-up thus far.

Rob is such a pleasure to work with. I’ve been taking a lot of advice from him and it’s already paying off so well! I highly advise my clients to check out his blog.

Business Card: Early Concepts & Final Copy

January 2, 2009 at 8:26 pm | Posted in process, projects | Leave a comment
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I am a little bummed out.

I wanted to register HavanaGraphics or Havana Designs or something similar but they’re already taken. It’s really gotten me down but I’m trying to do my best with what I have. Can’t let anything in the way, can we?

I seem to do my best work when I’m drawing or designing for someone but when it comes to working for myself, it becomes so frustrating. It plagues every artist, writer, designer, performer, musician: it’s just never good enough. I suppose I’m being much too hard on myself, but I really want to finish a business card design for myself so I can get them printed!

Here are a few designs I whipped up the past few weeks.

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But I’ve finally decided on a design and I just ordered them from Club Flyers an hour ago! 🙂

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The texture came from some scrapbook paper I bought from Michaels and the brushes are from Smashing Magazine. I am quite pleased with it and can’t wait ’til they come in! 🙂

Man, I’ve been watching nothing on Youtube except Disney musical numbers the past two days. Gotta love em.

Hello ’09!

January 2, 2009 at 4:02 am | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment
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Happy New Year! May 2009 be wonderful to you. 🙂

Btw, I think it’s awesome that 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy! To commemorate, I post a reading by Carl Sagan:

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